Gourds

Some things retain value long after their usefulness is part of history. Pen knives are a case in point. No one, save the occasional Colonial era re-enactor, uses bird quills as writing implements, yet pen knives, the pocket-sized folding blades that made it possible to turn feathers in to pens, are as popular as ever. It's likely there are more homes that own a pen knife or two than homes that don't. They're not necessarily all that useful, but they have a practical appeal. Same goes for gourds.

Cooler temperatures finally have me believing it's fall. What can I do to decorate my home so that the inside feels as autumn-like as the outside? The change in season marks a fantastic time to focus on your home. Earth tones, warmth and vivid contrasts are all evocative of fall. You can make some quick changes inside to reflect the changes outside. We asked Nicholas Johnson, owner of Su Casa, to offer some tips: •Try a new rug to warm up your space. Roll up your old one, tuck it behind the sofa or in a closet.

Most gardeners preserve their crops in canning jars or freezer bags. But there are exceptions.From her garden came the clock on the wall, the lamp on the table and the hat on Opal Lilly's head.All were carved from gourds.Likewise, a magazine rack, guitar and shoulder bag. Gourds, all. Even the porch lights at Mrs. Lilly's house in Florahome, Fla., were made from gourds.And you thought gourds were only good for autumn table decorations.In fact, these warty, hard-shelled ornamentals have been favored by craftspeople for thousands of years.

Some things retain value long after their usefulness is part of history. Pen knives are a case in point. No one, save the occasional Colonial era re-enactor, uses bird quills as writing implements, yet pen knives, the pocket-sized folding blades that made it possible to turn feathers in to pens, are as popular as ever. It's likely there are more homes that own a pen knife or two than homes that don't. They're not necessarily all that useful, but they have a practical appeal. Same goes for gourds.

This summer, make room in the garden for some fun: Plant a few gourd seeds and see what develops. Gourds shaped like apples, snakes, swans, penguins and ducks, as big as basketballs or as curvy as an hourglass are all easy to grow, look great in the garden, and can be used to make birdhouses and in other crafts after the harvest. Gourds are annual vines, eager to scramble up a trellis or over an arbor; they can climb up 15 feet. When the weather warms up, they grow as fast as Jack's beanstalk and set fruits with fascinating shapes.

In the midst of life-threatening illness, Lisa McGann turned to art for solace and renewal. At a farm field near her Bel Air home, she stumbled onto a natural medium that has formed the background for what she calls "stories." McGann burns images onto dried gourds. Her canvas can be an ordinary pumpkin or squash, or unusual gourds with names that describe their shapes - gooseneck, nest egg and cannonball - or speak to their origin, such as African kettle and Corsican. "I started telling my story on the gourds, but it's really everyone's story," said McGann, a 44-year-old mother of three.

By Nancy Jones-Bonbrest and Nancy Jones-Bonbrest,Special to The Baltimore Sun | October 18, 2008

This is the time of year pumpkins take center stage. But if there were a Robin to the pumpkin's Batman, it would certainly be the gourd. Gourds are as much a part of autumn as their big orange cousin. And, in some cases, even more so because gourds are often displayed well into November, long after pumpkins have become pie. Gourds come in bright colors, some sporting warts, stripes, bi-colors and even wings. But these welcome decorations are only part of the picture. Gourds are also used as spoons, bowls, musical instruments, art, dolls and sponges.

Why should a bird visiting a birdhouse have only one perch? If you want a bird to visit your birdhouse, wouldn't you offer her (or him) a choice of perches? That's what a tree does. And that's what Allen Hicks does when making fanciful birdhouses from rotund gourds and twisty sticks collected on his family farm in Walnut Cove, N.C. Like any custom homemaker, Hicks, who lives in Hampden, strives to provide the birds with "everything they wanted," including perch to-perch capability. Hicks recently sold a "duplex" birdhouse as well, a two-gourd construction for extended avian families.

After I brought my hibiscus and banana plants indoors for the winter, I noticed small "dots" moving around on the leaves. I suspect they are spider mites. What do I do now?If they have eight little legs they are indeed spider mites. Spraying large plants indoors is not safe or practical. Take your plants outside long enough to treat them with a soap and pyrethrum spray or an application of ultra-fine horticultural oil. Make sure that your particular plants are listed on the label.I am thrilled with my crop of luffa gourds, but I've been afraid to cut them.

"Gardens are shaped by the balance and tension between natural growth and the artifices of man," writes Jann Rosen-Queralt, the curator of "Works from the Garden" at School 33. Of the four artists she has chosen for the show, she writes that they "use their individual sensibilities and the physicality of their medium to create the wonder and amazement that gardens provide."Well, you coulda fooled me. The artists Rosen-Queralt has chosen deal with nature in various ways, but wonder and amazement don't come foremost to mind when looking at most of their works.

The roadside produce stand was fully stocked with fall-season goodies, and although there were plenty of items to chose from, I was preoccupied with purchasing gourds to use as centerpiece components. While I was looking over the gourds, though, a curious thing happened. I was distracted by acorns falling from a nearby oak, and this caused me to recall a fable written by Aesop, the famed Greek story teller from the sixth century B.C. In Aesop's fable, a man was relaxing beneath an oak when it occurred to him that lightweight acorns hang from huge limbs, yet heavy gourds dangle from flimsy vines.

Like a lot of people raised on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Jackie Hardin is a fancier of oysters. Growing up in Kent County, she became fond of oyster stew, steamed oysters and fried oysters. So when she heard about a cooking contest in Leonardtown that awarded prizes for dishes featuring the bivalve, she gave it a try. Her idea was to put fried oysters in a flour tortilla, nestle in some cole slaw and add dollops of chipotle mayonnaise. It is an idea she picked up from watching food shows on television.

By Nancy Jones-Bonbrest and Nancy Jones-Bonbrest,Special to The Baltimore Sun | October 18, 2008

This is the time of year pumpkins take center stage. But if there were a Robin to the pumpkin's Batman, it would certainly be the gourd. Gourds are as much a part of autumn as their big orange cousin. And, in some cases, even more so because gourds are often displayed well into November, long after pumpkins have become pie. Gourds come in bright colors, some sporting warts, stripes, bi-colors and even wings. But these welcome decorations are only part of the picture. Gourds are also used as spoons, bowls, musical instruments, art, dolls and sponges.

In the midst of life-threatening illness, Lisa McGann turned to art for solace and renewal. At a farm field near her Bel Air home, she stumbled onto a natural medium that has formed the background for what she calls "stories." McGann burns images onto dried gourds. Her canvas can be an ordinary pumpkin or squash, or unusual gourds with names that describe their shapes - gooseneck, nest egg and cannonball - or speak to their origin, such as African kettle and Corsican. "I started telling my story on the gourds, but it's really everyone's story," said McGann, a 44-year-old mother of three.

FONDS DES NEGRES, Haiti -- Here's a story about how bad it can get for many of the people of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It was told to me last week by Wesley Noel, a 39-year-old Haitian who is a program coordinator at the Bethel Clinic in this town in southern Haiti. The clinic is operated by the Salvation Army. It treats the people of Fonds des Negres for a variety of diseases, mostly AIDS. Its programs include a school for AIDS orphans. The story Mr. Noel tells is of a woman whose husband died recently of AIDS, leaving her and their three children even more destitute than they were before, living in a community of shacks near Fonds des Negres.

This summer, make room in the garden for some fun: Plant a few gourd seeds and see what develops. Gourds shaped like apples, snakes, swans, penguins and ducks, as big as basketballs or as curvy as an hourglass are all easy to grow, look great in the garden, and can be used to make birdhouses and in other crafts after the harvest. Gourds are annual vines, eager to scramble up a trellis or over an arbor; they can climb up 15 feet. When the weather warms up, they grow as fast as Jack's beanstalk and set fruits with fascinating shapes.

Cooler temperatures finally have me believing it's fall. What can I do to decorate my home so that the inside feels as autumn-like as the outside? The change in season marks a fantastic time to focus on your home. Earth tones, warmth and vivid contrasts are all evocative of fall. You can make some quick changes inside to reflect the changes outside. We asked Nicholas Johnson, owner of Su Casa, to offer some tips: •Try a new rug to warm up your space. Roll up your old one, tuck it behind the sofa or in a closet.

Q. An elderly neighbor has lovely old flowering plants that she's been growing for many years - butterfly weed, cardinal climber, love-lies-bleeding. They just seem to reseed themselves. Can I take seeds from her dead plants and plant them in my garden now?A. Presumably, these are older, nonhybrid cultivars that will come true from seed. Yes, you can scatter and lightly cover seed from these annual plants in your flower bed now. You might want to keep some of the seed in a glass jar in your freezer this winter and start them in pots next spring to have extra plants.

Why should a bird visiting a birdhouse have only one perch? If you want a bird to visit your birdhouse, wouldn't you offer her (or him) a choice of perches? That's what a tree does. And that's what Allen Hicks does when making fanciful birdhouses from rotund gourds and twisty sticks collected on his family farm in Walnut Cove, N.C. Like any custom homemaker, Hicks, who lives in Hampden, strives to provide the birds with "everything they wanted," including perch to-perch capability. Hicks recently sold a "duplex" birdhouse as well, a two-gourd construction for extended avian families.